TnANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 673 



the top, which contained within it and on its surface abundance of the marine shells 

 Cardium edide, Buccinum undatum, Purpura lapillus, Murex arenaceus, Tellina 

 Balthica, Tapes decussata, Litorina litoren, Trochus cinerareus, Hydrohia ulvce, 

 Lucina borealis, species of Scrohiculnria, Bissoa, Nassa, Mytilus, and others. 



Beneath the tidal alluvium over the greater part of the area, peat was found in 

 thickness varying from 2 to 14 feet, being thickest towards the Itchen side of the 

 excavation, and as a rule thinnest on the Test side. At the Test side of the 

 -excavation, and dipping sharply towards the Itchen under the thick peat on this 

 side — at one time a dark line of peat parallel with the present course of the 

 Itchen, and on a level with the gravel terrace, could be seen stretching out into the 

 •estuary towards the junction of the river channels. The colouring matter of a 

 green sand found in the gravel just below the alluvium has been examined and 

 ■analysed by Mr. J. Brierly, public analyst for Southampton. 



The Bracklesham beds lying beneath the gravel were found to be largely 

 composed of gi-een sand or green sandy clay coloured with glauconite, below 

 Tvhich a dark clay was met with. On the Itchen side of the excavation, where 

 the gravel is comparatively thin and occurs beneath very thick peat, the Brackle- 

 sham clay just below the gravel was found to be dark-coloured. Some remarkably 

 large sand pipes, very fine specimens of Venericardia planicosta, Turritella sulcifera, 

 and large pieces of pyritised wood, have been found in the Bracklesham beds, the 

 •compact sandy clays of which showed some well-marked joint planes discoloured 

 by infiltration and oxidation. About fifty species of Bracklesham mollusca have 

 up to the present time been found. 



The loss of cattle and the native ponies of the New Forest during wet seasons 

 in the deep New Forest bogs at the present time, appeal's to explain the occm-rence 

 of animal remains in the peat. 



Some Neolithic remains were found in the peat, consisting of dark-coloured 

 flint Hakes, such flint chips being met with on one occasion all lying within a few 

 feet of each other, the site probably marking the spot where a Neolithic worker 

 had fashioned his implement. A very fine specimen of a round hammer-stone was 

 also found in the peat about twenty feet below the surface of the alluvium, the 

 hammer being 3| inches in diameter, and having a circular hole If inches in diameter 

 at the sides, and ^ inch in diameter in the middle. It weighs 1 lb. 9 oz., and 

 is made of fine greywether sandstone, and is one of the finest of its kind recorded 

 as having been found in England. 



The gravel beneath the peat was found partly in ridges with thick peat between 

 the ridges, but this character did not extend far. A great part of the area after 

 the removal of the upper beds presented the appearance of a gravel terrace, the 

 gravel lying highest on the north-western part of the excavation ; the alluvium 

 was found to rest on gravel, peat being absent. 



The peat was found to contain within it extensive beds or pockets of shell marl 

 ■or fresh-water tufa containing abundance of shells of laud and fresh-water species — 

 Ziimnen perer/ra, Limnea stagnalis, Limnea palusfris, several species of Hdi.v and 

 Flanorlis, I'isidium amnicum, Bithinia tenfMculata, Hydrohia ventrosa, and Valuata 

 pykcinaJis. The tufa much resembled large patches of a similar kind, which occur 

 just below the surface of the alluvial meadow land in both the river valleys from 

 ten to twenty miles higher up the streams. 



The peat contained much bog-oak, with large trunks in situ, and remains of 

 beech, hazel, birch, fir, and apparently the bog myrtle, heaths, bracken-fern, sedge, 

 and bulrush. 



The animal remains found in this peat comprised the horn cores and parts of 

 the skull oi Bos primigenius — one a very fine specimen, described by the author of 

 the paper in the ' Geological Magazine ' for November 1887 — many bones of the 

 Bos, and many horns and bones of Cervus elephas. Some bones of a small variety 

 of horse were previously found in this peat, from which was also obtained the tusk 

 of a boar and some bones of the hare. 



1888. X X 



